


dry drown

by Anonymous



Category: Hellboy (Movies 2004-2008), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, M/M, Pining, Possibly Unrequited Love, Pre-Slash, Unresolved Emotional Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:33:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22203394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Kylo is the storm. Abe is the port.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Abe Sapien
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12
Collections: Exchanges After Dark Birthday Bash 2020, Fanfic Anonymous





	dry drown

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SomeHorribleFen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeHorribleFen/gifts).



> I knew exactly what scarred/blue ship you meant! Thank you, SomeHorribleFen, for requesting my OTP. And thanks to my beta, L, for confirming nothing needed to be changed as I am a Certified Good Writer.

The light from Abe's tank casts the whole world in blue. Everything else is dimly lit and flickering, the fire from the torches doused in blue. Kylo is drowning in it too; he always does, when he's this close. 

If he were a better person, he'd say something like, _I'll take you to a water planet. I'll take you somewhere we — you can swim under the stars_. Somewhere without this damp-brick, damp-book smell. But that's not who he is, and they both know it. 

It takes only a gentle nudge with the Force to turn the pages of the books, but it still draws Abe's attention away from the pages. 

"You're unsettled," Abe says, drifting from one end of his tank to the other. Kylo is crouched down low on a chair, leaning forward. He wonders what it would be like to be held by the water like that, always, held buoyant without being dragged down. 

_I'm always unsettled_ , he thinks, but doesn't say. Abe can probably sense it, but Kylo knows he won't say it either. 

"Politics," he says, instead. "General Hux — what are you reading about?"

If Abe is unsettled by the sudden change of subject, he doesn't show it. There's no sound in the room, beyond the gentle bubbling of water and Kylo's breathing, too fast to be relaxed. 

"Lately, I've been reading about the Force," Abe says. Kylo watches his own reflection in the tank, a pale ghostly face bisected by scars. He averts his eyes; he watches the ripples of water made by Abe's undulations instead. 

"You can ask me anything you want to know about the Force," Kylo says, and it comes out too harsh, too abrasive. 

"It's because I want to ask that I'm reading," Abe says, mildly, and Kylo can't tell if it's a rebuke or reassurance. He turns the pages again, the soft sound of them as they slide over each other providing the necessary pause in the conversation. "What does it feel like?"

What does the Force _feel_ like? He's been immersed in it since the minute he was born. It's like asking _what does it feel like to breathe air_ — which could be Abe's next question. 

Kylo hauls himself to his feet. He's still recovering, which he refuses to let on, and it's made him weak. Soft. Body and mind. He shouldn't be here. He doesn't want to be anywhere else. He paces to the bookshelves and back, then along the line of Abe's tank, where the air feels different, heavy with humidity and the chill of water. 

"It feels like power," he says. It feels like power and hard work, like pulling a speeder along with just muscle and sweat. 

"Just power?" Abe says, and he's suddenly close enough that, if there were no glass, Kylo could reach out and touch him. Instead, he can see himself in the reflection of Abe's eyes, deep enough that he could drown, if he wanted. "I thought it would feel more like — harmony."

Kylo feels like laughing, but it dissipates. That sounds like something his mother or Uncle Luke would say, but it feels different, coming from Abe. No matter how much they disagree, Abe's abilities _have_ to come from the Force. Perhaps they're more connected than either of them realises. 

That's a false hope, Kyle thinks. He can come to any conclusion he wants, down in the blue-dark, but when he ascends back to his ship, it will vanish. Even his lightsaber would be purple, down here. 

"If you could go anywhere in the universe," Kylo says, leaning his forehead against the cool glass of the tank — just to feel it, he tells himself; just to hold his weight, and not to close that last, impossible inch of distance — "where would you go?"

"Why would I want to go anywhere?" Abe says. There's a nervousness in his voice that Kylo has heard when Abe talks to others who interrupt his visits — Hellboy, or the weedy FBI agent — but it's never been there when Abe speaks to him. "Why would I want to leave?" His fingers, behind the glass, trace the shape of Kylo's face — trace his scars. 


End file.
